It’s the antithesis of the modern North American stainless steel super grill (you know, that propane-fired monster with multiple heat zones, infrared sear station and industrial strength rotisserie).

But when it comes to providing maximum grilling efficiency in minimal space, few grills can beat its direct, concentrated, blast-furnace heat.

It’s the compact Japanese-style tabletop grill known in the West as the hibachi. Without it there would be no yakitori or robatayaki.

Get the Yakitori Like They Make It in Japan Recipe

Perhaps you owned one when you were in college or installed one on the fire escape or balcony of your first apartment. If money and space were tight, your first grilling experience may well have taken place on a hibachi. (Hey, you never forget your first time.)

For me—having been born in Japan—the hibachi is more than a nostalgic icon. It reminds us how uncomplicated and elemental grilling can be, requiring little more than a vessel to hold and channel the fire, and vents to control the airflow, and thus the heat.

The first hibachis (the word means “fire bowl”) were used for indoor heating and for warming water. By the 8th century A.D. you could find hibachis carved from cypress wood and lined with clay. These gave way to ornamental porcelain or ceramic models, which in turn have become the sleek firebrick and steel hibachis used today.

Curiously, in Japan you won’t hear the term hibachi used for a grill. The Japanese prefer the terms shichirin or konro. (The former takes its name from the Japanese words for “seven rin”—the archaic cost of a batch of cooking charcoal.) Traditional models resembled large round flowerpots.

The best were made from volcanic diatomaceous earth—unsurpassed for retaining and dispersing the heat. Modern yakitori parlors use long, slender, rectangular grills fabricated from firebrick or ceramic. Some come with wire mesh grates (tightly woven to keep small foods from falling into the fire).

But in Japan, most have no grates. They rely on a metal bar running the length of the firebox to support the ends of the yakitori and other kebabs. The bare portion of the skewer hangs over the edge, which keeps the bamboo from burning.

The finest yakitori parlors use hard, super-premium, super-hot burning charcoal called binchotan. This, aerated with an electric fan, enables the grill master to achieve grilling temperatures as high as 1000 degrees F.

When Japanese-style tabletop grilling came to North America, the grills lost their traditional name (shichirin) and were marketed as hibachis, which was easier for the Western tongue to pronounce. Or maybe it was just a classic case of lost in translation.

In any case, hibachi became the common term in the West. And now, it seems more and more people are rediscovering this remarkably efficient little grill.

American-made hibachis differ in one key way from traditional Japanese shichirin (also called konro) grills. We fabricate them from metal—typically cast iron. With hibachis, as in so much in life, you get what you pay for. Cheap metal hibachis made in China tend to break or wear out after a couple uses.

At a recent session of Barbecue University, we had an opportunity to test drive Japanese and American hibachis side by side. May the best grill win.

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